Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to raise this matter in the Dáil. I am a public representative since 1999, when I was first elected to Offaly County Council, and I also served on the Midlands Regional Authority. I am well aware of the kind of public consultations that would have been conducted in those authorities, such as when the county development plans, arts plans, heritage plans, tourism plans and so on were being drafted. I am also aware of the procedures put in place by the NRA for consultation when new motorways were being constructed in different parts of the county.

Since my election to the Dáil in 2011, I have seen a huge shift in the means by which people receive information. As a public representative, people are engaging with me much more on social media, on the Internet, via texting and so on. The time has come for Departments and State agencies to move with the times. This has come into sharp focus for me in the debate on the pylons issue and the wind energy export proposals which the Government is undertaking and on which EirGrid undertook a public consultation. The citizens of the areas involved were unhappy because they felt the consultation was not made public enough and the opportunities were not there for them to engage fully as citizens of this country on issues that are going to be of critical importance to them. Many of the people I have met in Offaly with concerns about the wind energy export proposal feel that they have not been consulted, and they refer consistently to the Aarhus Convention. Having said all of that, I know this is a reforming Government, with serious aims about how we do our business. Examples include the Oireachtas website, www.merrionstreet.ie and the policy on e-tenders, and these are excellent efforts to reach out to our citizens.

My proposal is for a website which would be dedicated solely to public consultations. It could be entitled www.consultation.ie and would be a one-stop shop for members of the public to navigate in order to find out about public consultations that are relevant to them. For example, people in Offaly could click on the Offaly link and go straight to specific consultations such as county development plans and public consultation on the wind energy export proposal. People could also engage in national consultations on issues such as end of life proposals or whatever. They would have an opportunity, if they so wished, to have their say easily.

I appreciate that Departments have links to these consultations on their websites, but one would need to know it is there to go looking for it. It would be a tremendous opportunity for the citizens of this country to be able to have their say. There would be great opportunities for Oireachtas committees as well. I am on the environment and justice committees, and we regularly put a call out to interested groups on the various issues we are dealing with. It would be a tremendous opportunity for them to have their say as well. I hope the Minister considers this seriously, because it would be a tremendous instrument in making our democracy more user friendly and the citizens would have their say.

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